PUNE: The SMS-based facility of providing updates on property documents started by the state Inspector-General of Registration has drawn as many as 1,700 queries from citizens in the past two months.

Citizens have to no longer visit the sub-registrar's office (SRO) to find out the validity of a document, they can get an update by just sending an SMS to the office. At present, details of documents registered after July 2012 are available through the system. Plans are afoot to upload details of documents registered between 2002 and 2012 in the next one month.

The system allows instant verification of registered property documents. Officials at the IGR said the initial response was fairly decent and that they expect more citizens to use the facility in the coming months.

Officials said, "Nearly 800 messages were received per month. These were for genuine documents, while the system had not counted messages which did not have the required details. There is a plan to reach out to more citizens by displaying details of the facility at sub-registrar's offices. Moreover, a user manual has been uploaded on the IGR website to educate people about how the SMS system works." Sources in the real estate sector said there have been instances of fake registrations.

The facility will allow people to check whether a document has been registered with the sub-registrar's office or not.The IGR said it has plans to scan registered documents and upload them on a central server, especially those registered between 1985 and 2001 as they were registered manually.